Eight Hundred Years

Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra’s Spring Concert

Saturday, May 27 at 7:00 pm

Tickets $15-$30, Available here!

The Northampton Center for the Arts is thrilled to welcome the Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra back to the Flex at 33 Hawley for their annual Spring Concert. This is a group like no other which combines the timbres and techniques of electric, acoustic, classical and bass guitars played by musicians hailing from an array of musical backgrounds. Each year Artistic Director Joseph Ricker curates and arranges a selection of music that is as unique as the ensemble itself.

This year the orchestra presents a program entitled "Eight Hundred Years." It begins with a 21st century update on music written for the Christmas Eve service in 1198 AD at the Notre Dame Cathedral in medieval Paris and spans to music composed for the Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra just a few years ago. Along the way the program also includes HVGO's own spin on two 18th century sonatas by Scarlatti and Albéniz, a piano work of the 19th Century Romantic composer Edvard Grieg, 20th Century modernist works by Igor Stravinsky and Aram Khatchaturian and avant-garde pop music by the Beatles and Stereolab.